


Flower Language 101

by iwazilla



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Confessions, Florist Kuroo, Flowers, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 22:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7989115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwazilla/pseuds/iwazilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Person A owns a flower shop and person B comes storming in one day, slaps 20 bucks on the counter and says "How do I passive-aggressively say "fuck you" in flower?"</p><p>Or Kuroo the florist meets Bokuto - loud, energetic, ridiculously attractive Bokuto - who demands this request of him for an unsuspecting team mate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flower Language 101

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maiuzan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiuzan/gifts).



> birthday fic for my b r o <3

Kuroo hummed softly to himself as he trimmed rose petals, working methodically through each branch. The sun shone weakly, intermittently lighting up the store before being hidden again behind gray clouds, and strong winds rattled the windows in their frames. Summer was very visibly giving way to autumn now and over the past week Tokyo had been hit with powerful storms; Kuroo had lost count of the number of umbrellas he’d had to dispose of, throwing their broken frames into the nearest trashcan as he ran the rest of the way home.

Still, he couldn’t really complain given that the summer as a whole had been so good to him. Normally he only worked in the florists as a part-time deal, lending his uncle a hand during weekends or busy holiday periods. But over the summer break he’d taken over management of the store full-time, his uncle having travelled to the north of the country to take care of his ailing mother (Kuroo’s grandmother). The pay had been good when Kuroo worked part-time, helping to sustain his college lifestyle, but the amount he’d earnt over the summer was more than enough to keep him comfortable across the entirety of his final year.

A small bell tinkled in the background, indicating the arrival of a new customer. Placing the shears to one side, Kuroo removed his gloves.

“Just a minute!” he called out, moving quickly to the sink to rinse his hands. The gloves did a great job of protecting him from cuts like they needed to, but they sure smelt bad. He glanced into the mirror, running a hand through his hair in a futile attempt to tidy it a bit, and left the backroom with a bright smile on his face.

“Hi there! How can I help you?”

The customer, a man in his early twenties with shoulder-length salt and pepper hair currently pushed away from his face with a hairband, turned from where he was observing some tiny snapdragons and marched to the counter.

“I need the most insulting flowers you have.”

Kuroo raised an eyebrow. He’d certainly had some strange requests since working here, but this one was really something.

“Insulting flowers? Could you perhaps elaborate a little for me on that?”

“Yeah like – ‘I hate you’, ‘you’re the worst’, ‘I’m really mad at you’. Like ‘fuck you’ flowers, you get me? I have plenty of money because it’s a team effort so I don’t really care how expensive they are. Just give me the worst flowers ever. Bonus if they smell really bad too.”

Taking a moment to figure out the best way to deal with this odd request, and somewhat taken aback by how casually the guy used an expletive in conversation with someone he didn’t know, Kuroo subtly glanced over the customer. He was tall and broad, strong arms crossed over his chest and covering the top half of his deep blue jersey – clearly some sort of sports team uniform, with a large number 4 in the middle. He wore black shorts and leggings (or perhaps particularly long kneepads, Kuroo couldn’t tell) that ran up his muscular thighs, with blue and black trainers on his feet. Worst of all was this guy’s eyes – a deep golden colour, looking at Kuroo expectantly as he waited for an answer. Kuroo could get lost in those eyes forever.

Strongly reminding himself that this was a customer in his store, not some stranger at a bar, Kuroo cleared his throat and bent down underneath the counter – partly to find something, partly to hide the deepening blush on his face.

“Just one moment.”

When Kuroo found what he was looking for he stood up, slapping the catalogue down on the counter. The customer raised an eyebrow, looking at Kuroo inquisitively.

“This is a document that shows all of our stock, but the owner of the store – my uncle – has written down what each flower represents in here as well. It’s always good to know for some of the arrangements we get asked to make because it means we can make sure they're appropriate, or respectful in the case of a loss or something.”

“That’s pretty cool,” the man said, stepping closer to the counter and peering at the pages as Kuroo flicked through.

“So, uh… you know I never quite got your name?”

“Oh, its Bokuto. Bokuto Koutarou.”

“Bokuto-san,” Kuroo said, stopping at one of the pages. “I think these might help with what you’re looking for.” He rotated the book so that Bokuto could see without having to read upside down, pointing at one of the flowers in particular.

“These little pink ones are called peony’s. They look very attractive but my uncle told me you can use them to mean you’re angry at someone.”

“Perfect!”

“Well, there’s some more too if you wanna mix it up a little,” Kuroo continued, smiling at the enthusiastic look on Bokuto’s face. “See here we also have oleander, which means ‘you better watch out’ or something along the lines. I’m thinking the white ones, so that not everything is pink in there.”

“Okay, yeah, that’s great!”

“And we _also_ have lavender – I’m sure you know what that is, everybody does. They can signify distrust, so maybe I can scatter some sprigs in there for you. They smell too – not bad necessarily but pretty strong. Whoever’s getting these won’t be able to smell anything else for a while I can assure you.”

Bokuto clapped his hands together, grinning brightly at Kuroo. “Alright! You’re awesome man!”

Kuroo smiled back, closing the catalogue and placing it back where it belonged under the counter. He walked into the backroom to collect the appropriate utensils and got to work.

He had expected Bokuto to leave like most other customers did, opting to go and do their own thing and come back to collect the bunch when it was all put together. But to his surprise Bokuto stayed, bombarding him with all sorts of questions; from learning his name to how he had come to work in the store, how long he had been working here, was it fun, how often was he here - everything he could think of. Kuroo quickly learnt that Bokuto was a highly inquisitive person who talked a _lot_ but he found it pretty endearing, enjoying the conversation in which they both learnt more about each other.

“So do you _always_ have to know all of the different meanings for the different flowers? Or like, do most people just want whatever's cute and looks good?”

“My uncle always tells me it’s good to know what the different types mean when you add things in,” Kuroo replied, carefully placing sprinkles of white oleander into the peonies. “Just adds an extra touch I guess.”

“And do you know a lot of them by heart and stuff? Or do you always have to use the book? Man, I’d never be able to remember any of it.”

Kuroo laughed, fiddling with the arrangement. “I know quite a lot of it by heart now; I’ve been working here for a while after all. Sometimes the book just helps to absolutely make sure I’m using the right thing, or gives me a hand when I get… unusual requests.” He smirked at Bokuto, who rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Heh, yeah… sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Glancing over what he’d done so far, making a few tweaks here and there, Kuroo reached for the lavender sprigs. “What’s the story behind this anyway? Someone must’ve really wound you up.”

Bokuto’s face darkened and he frowned deeply.

“So this guy on my team – volleyball team that is, the one at college – he’s like really good and all but he says things that just piss me off you know like, he doesn’t really think before he says stuff and the other day, oh man just get a load of this, he—”

Kuroo listened in amusement to Bokuto’s tirade. Apparently this guy – Ushijima – had made some comment about the old rivalries his high school had had with some of the other player’s schools and it’d rubbed them all up the wrong way. Flowers seemed a little eccentric as payback to the insult but Kuroo figured Bokuto was a pretty eccentric guy – that much was easy enough to see just by looking at his hair, let alone listening to him talk.

“Anyway, since Ushi’s such a country boy, Tooru –  the team setter – said we should get this,” Bokuto gestured vaguely towards the flowers. “Since he’d know what it meant probably, and we really wanted to let him know he’d done it this time.”

Kuroo suppressed the urge to laugh, crossing the store to pick up some larger red flowers. Bokuto tilted his head in curiosity as Kuroo placed these ones neatly around the rim of the basket.

“You never mentioned those ones before.”

“These are red carnations,” Kuroo explained. “My uncle always told me they’re pretty flashy. I figure you’re a pretty flashy guy, so it fits.” He winked at Bokuto, smirking slightly.

“What are flowers that mean you think someone’s cute?”

Kuroo almost dropped the carnations he was holding. It was just a simple, totally innocent question and yet it had thrown him into overdrive. Bokuto – loud, friendly, ridiculously attractive Bokuto – was _just a customer_. Just a customer in his store, probably asking because they’d been talking about different floral meanings before. What was the big deal?

“I uh, haven’t really ever thought about that one,” Kuroo (lied) answered, his gaze fixed on the flowers in front of him. “But I guess pink roses would work.”

“Hm.” Bokuto appeared thoughtful, rather unsubtly looking towards the roses on the other side of the room before looking back at Kuroo. Kuroo pretended not to notice, finishing the last of the display.

Satisfied with his work Kuroo stood and brushed off his hands. Bokuto smiled broadly at him as he placed the flowers neatly in a special box, telling Bokuto all the things he’d need to do in order to keep them fresh (as if Bokuto would be the one taking care of them). Bokuto paid him and then picked the box up from the counter, one arm supporting the base and the other around the box itself.

“You need a hand with anything? Have you got a car to take it home in?” Kuroo frowned at the sky in disdain, noticing it had darkened considerably since Bokuto’s arrival.

“Yep! It’s just around the corner. Anyway thanks Kuroo, I owe you one! You’re the best!”

Kuroo waved as Bokuto left the shop. Of all the customers he’d ever served, he prayed this one came back soon.

\---

Later in the week, stormy skies finally replaced with bright blue and radiant sunshine that dazzled through the windows, Kuroo hummed softly to himself as he watered all of the flowers on display. He had even left some displayed outside today in their large silver buckets, not having to worry about them being blown away in the wind.

The bell above the door tinkled and Kuroo turned around, seeing the mailman smiling brightly at him.

“Good morning Kuroo-san! I have a delivery for you.”

Kuroo looked at the man in confusion. He couldn’t remember ordering anything for delivery recently. Perhaps it was for his uncle, or something his uncle had sent to him – but even then, why would he send it to the store instead of Kuroo’s apartment?

Nonetheless Kuroo placed down his watering can and took the package, signing when prompted so that the sender knew it had been received. He wished the mailman a good day as he left and then focused on ripping the packaging open, curious as to what was inside.

Underneath all of the packaging was a rectangular box, decorated in soft blue material with a lighter blue bow tied around it.

Inside of that was a bouquet of flowers. A dozen roses – 11 pink and 1 lavender.

More than a little surprised, Kuroo picked up a note next to the flowers and began to read. 

 

_Thanks for the other day! Ushi knew exactly what the flowers meant – the look on his face was priceless when he told us about it._

 

Kuroo laughed out loud, shaking his head before he read on.

 

_Anyway, I think you’re really cool and you’re so clever knowing all these things. I think you’re really cute too, although you can probably tell by the roses… I had to add the purple one too because man, I just…. Maybe it’s kinda lame since we don’t even really know each other much yet, but I really like you Kuroo. You’re so cool. And I really want to get to know you more._

 

Kuroo, who was certain his face was as pink as the roses right now, covered his ridiculously wide smile with one hand and skimmed over the rest of the note quickly. Bokuto told him he was keen to learn more about the ‘cool flower stuff’ too and asked him on a first date, leaving his number at the end. Almost as soon as he finished reading Kuroo took his phone from his pocket and texted the number – just a simple message but one he was sure would be understood.

 

_Yes. I’ll see you there. How’s 6.30?_

_Flower boy x_

_p.s. nice touch with the lavender rose – me too :-)_

**Author's Note:**

> lavender rose - 'love at first sight' because Bokuto (and Kuroo (and myself)) are lame as hell ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ  
> all of the flower meanings were gathered from various places but in any instance, I hope this was as fun to read as it was to write!


End file.
